Chapter 760: Bone Dragon

The current location is the basement of the Midhillburg Academy of Mechanics in the Rift, but turning to look behind him, there was no door on the wall covered with disgusting black mucus that would allow Xia De to leave, so the flame shared by Sister Daelin was indeed very important.

Even indoors, it was filled with fog. Unlike the fog in the real world, the former was just damp and cold, while the chill of the latter could not be blocked by clothing at all.

At the same time, in the previous few times he went deep into the Rift, only his physical state was affected. But this time entering the Rift, the influence of the relic's unique effect on the spirit finally appeared.

When he was standing in place talking to "her" at the beginning, he hadn't felt very serious discomfort. But when he started to walk out, with every step he took, that strange dizziness, as if he hadn't woken up, became more and more serious.

When Xia De came to the stairs of the basement, he had to lean against the wall to rest. But fortunately, the state of divine radiance still protected him, coupled with the help of 【Youth-Preserving Ye Zi】 and the simple protective amulet he made according to Elf knowledge, he gradually adapted to this place after resting for a few minutes.

Knowing that time was running out, Xia De didn't stay any longer and hurried away from the basement. Perhaps because all the windows in the corridor were broken, the thick fog on the first floor of the castle was even more exaggerated than in the basement.

The castle that looked like the real one was not exactly the same as the real castle, so Xia De didn't waste time looking for the main entrance, but left the castle through the window and came to the castle courtyard overgrown with weeds.

Because he had learned a little about the plant population that could grow in the Rift when helping Mr. Corpus collect plants last week, Xia De could identify a variety of precious plants including corpse grass, snake heart grass, and rotten soul flowers.

And the lushness of these plants also reflected from the side that the power of life and death in the Rift had completely lost its balance.

The distance from the location of the Midhillburg Academy of Mechanics to the seal on the mountainside was actually closer than going to the Nature Church in the city center. But Xia De thought that the possibility of Joey Barton appearing at the foot of the mountain was greater, so he still headed into the city.

The further loss of control in the Rift also caused major changes in the internal space. Xia De discovered while avoiding spirits that abnormal space even caused dangerous areas similar to "circular alleys" and broken spaces to appear inside the Rift.

In the process of moving forward, he encountered a circular alley, which was a section of alley that seemed infinitely long, walking in which he could never reach the exit that seemed to be right in front of him.

Keen perception made Xia De notice that something was wrong in time, and fortunately, he also had spatial power. On the advice of "her," he drew a circle under his feet with the 【Night Watcher】, then knelt on one knee on the ground, held the sword hilt with both hands and inserted it into the earth under his feet, forehead pressed against the sword hilt:

"Spatial Stability Halo!"

A clear sound of glass shattering appeared all around. Looking up again, the dilapidated alley in the white fog didn't seem to have changed. But after walking only a few dozen steps, he left the range of the alley:

"As expected of an Angel-level relic, unfortunately..."

He waved the long sword a few times, making a sound of breaking through the air. Xia De solemnly inserted it into the scabbard, and then continued to walk into this old city shrouded in thick fog.

The Rift suppressed the spread of sound, so even if a steam bomb exploded in the distance, Xia De would probably not hear it. But the obstruction of the white fog to the spread of light only had an ordinary effect, so he could see things happening nearby from a high place.

The first large-scale anomaly Xia De encountered was a group of crows flying over his head. At that time, he thought dark clouds had appeared above his head, and looked up only to find that it was dense black flying birds.

At that time, he was standing on the spire-like roof of a marble building on one side of the five-way intersection. This building was the Carsonian Commercial Bank in the real world. Leaning on the gargoyle statue, trying to find the direction for the next step, the crows flew over in large groups.

Xia De hurriedly hid behind the huge gargoyle statue, squinting his eyes to see someone flying with them above the crows.

"High-ring Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi?"

The distance was too far to judge, but immediately after, he knew why the other party had to fly at high altitude. Because in the deeper part of the thick fog, a huge black shadow appeared rapidly, and finally broke through the fog layer and appeared above Xia De's head.

That was a huge skeleton, with wings on its back, covered with bone spurs on its long tail, and red light jumping in its eye sockets. When it appeared, there seemed to be a gravitational force around that skeleton that could attract attention, and no gaze could escape its body. And as an undead creature in the Rift, this bone dragon had extremely terrible polluting properties. Even Xia De didn't dare to stare at it for too long.

"Oh, my Little Mia, Bone Dragon!"

Compared to the bone dragon Xia De encountered in the Dead Valley of the Fifth Era, this one was obviously smaller in volume and had a weaker sense of oppression. But even so, this was a real bone dragon, the most powerful undead creature that could be encountered in the modern Sixth Era under normal circumstances.

"I knew it, there wouldn't only be evil spirits in the Death Rift."

He tried his best to shrink his body, hoping that the terrible undead flying overhead and the bone dragon would not notice him. But as if to respond to Xia De's thoughts, the terrible undead flying overhead, in a muffled roar, raised its neck and swayed left and right, and then sprayed a black deadly breath toward the front.

The crow group couldn't dodge in time, falling from the sky in large swaths like wheat harvested by a sickle. And the man who was flying with the crow group also fell to the ground, although he used a spell similar to "Feather Fall" at the last moment to slow down the falling speed, he looked seriously injured.

Very unluckily, the place where he landed was exactly the five-way intersection below the roof where Xia De was.

Holding a yellow-covered big book in his hand, the man stood up with difficulty leaning on the ground, immediately called out the 11th-ring life ring, and prepared for battle, while the flying bone dragon also lowered its altitude.

It flapped its wings and glided at low altitude, lowering its head and spraying black breath on the ground paved with long strip bricks. Even though Xia De was separated from it by a long distance, he could clearly feel how terrible the breath containing the power of death, plague, and curse was.

The area of the five-way intersection was very large, and the shops around were all abandoned for a long time, making it very convenient to dodge left and right. But the breath was swept from left to right, so the strange high-ring Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi could only defend in place.

He held the book in his hand high, opened a page, and let an eggshell-like protective layer block around him, which could be considered as taking this move completely.

"A very familiar spell, is it the Heaton Seal of the Sun Church? No, it looks more like the Zarathos Thaumaturgy Academy... oh!"

The bone dragon that had sprayed on the ground once raised its altitude again. While the black clouds on the ground had not yet dispersed, it discovered Xia De hiding behind the gargoyle statue at high altitude.

Boom!

The body rotated in the air, and the huge tail with sharp bone spurs swept over violently. The area of the roof was only this big, Xia De couldn't dodge at all, and could only jump toward the air violently. And behind him, the spire-like roof of the marble building had been completely destroyed.

Adjusting his posture in the air, holding the sword with both hands, he subconsciously wanted to use 【Sunlight Ray】, or "Sunlight Light Cannon," to hit the bone dragon's head. But then he realized that there would be many battles ahead, and he absolutely couldn't waste too much spirit here.

"Lagley's Jump."

The bone dragon's huge head opened its mouth to bite toward Xia De, but Xia De had already disappeared in the air, appearing against the wall of the building on the southeast side of the street. His feet kicked violently, using the power of the spell to bounce out, dodging the bone dragon's another tail flick. While jumping in the air, the chain in his sleeve shot out, entangling the flagpole protruding from the window of the building on the southwest side.

Using the chain to swing violently, the whole person circled half a circle above the five-way intersection, and then rolled on the ground to unload the force before climbing up and stepping steadily on the ground.

The bone dragon's breath on the ground had gradually dispersed, and the 11th-ring Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi who was suspected to be a Zarathos professor was indeed still alive, but fell to the ground, trying to struggle to climb up, looking seriously injured.

Xia De ran a few steps and pounced toward him, then the two rolled on the ground together, dodging the claws of the bone dragon that swooped down. Those claws left two deep scratches on the already broken ground.

"Sir, are you okay?"

He seemed to be poisoned. Xia De helped him and wanted to hide in the building by the street, while searching for branches in his pocket to detoxify him. Observing at close range, the book held by the 11th-ring Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi indeed had the school emblem of Zarathos Thaumaturgy Academy.

If it weren't for the suppression of power in the Rift, this professor, even if he lost, wouldn't have lost so miserably. Xia De remembered that in the Dead Valley, the 13th-tier witch Ms. Orlanod defeated an opponent even more ferocious than the bone dragon overhead with just one move of "Moonlight Greatsword." Even if the contemporary Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi system was not as good as the witch system, the 11th ring was not without the qualifications to fight the bone dragon.

"It's okay, this thing appeared too suddenly, I am not good at dealing with things that fly."

The brown-haired middle-aged professor said while spitting blood.

The two had already hidden in the building next to the intersection that looked like a haunted house, and the bone dragon that raised its altitude again did not find them for the time being, but did not leave, but was wandering in the thick fog above the intersection.

"Where did this thing come from?"

Xia De asked curiously while detoxifying, but the poison of the bone dragon was not something he could deal with. After thinking about it, he searched for the answer from the Elf knowledge. So he searched for a fresh green leaf from his pocket, wrote the Elf runes representing 【Health】 and 【Strong】 on it with a fountain pen, and then used the leaf and branches together as spellcasting materials to detoxify.

Doing so was equivalent to casting a "Strong Detoxification Spell." Although the consumption was a bit large, the effect was very obvious.

"Thank you. I am Raven Ogley... that dragon flew down from the Sicard Mountains with me. The Chosen One summoned Him, that terrible dwarf is crazy, he is trying to fuse a 0-level relic. Although the human soul has a limit, he can indeed control a few powerful undead individuals at once. This dragon originally slept deep in the Sicard Mountains. According to the records, it was killed by a witch in the early Fifth Era."

The professor looked at the young man wearing a mask and said, without hiding these things. Xia De frowned slightly:

"Joey Barton is on the mountain?"

The green light lingering in his hand was expelling the poison, and the professor's complexion looked much better:

"Although I don't know who you are, you are indeed here for the Chosen One... Yes, on the mountain, the church has already seen him, his target seems to be the top of the mountain."

"I guessed wrong?"

Xia De was a bit surprised in his heart, but thinking about it, he felt that things shouldn't be that simple.

"However, the witches also sent information that Joey Barton also appeared near the mountainside."

The professor added, and Xia De nodded, knowing that he couldn't draw a conclusion for the time being:

"Professor, is it okay to tell a stranger like me these things?"

The middle-aged professor leaning against the dirty wall smiled:

"Even if I tell you, what can happen? Now the Rift is in a mess. If you are willing to go up the mountain to stop Joey Barton, wouldn't that be better? And, you saved me, I should repay you."

"That's good, is there any way to deal with the dragon outside? If it doesn't leave, none of us can leave."

Xia De said, and then added:

"I am not high-level, I can't beat the opponent."

"Answer me a question first, disguising your accent as if you have something in your mouth, appearing alone in a dangerous place, wearing a black coat, normal figure... are you the 'God-Caller'?"

"This question has no meaning now."

"Well said."

The strong detoxification spell ended, and the Zarathos professor wanted to stand up, but held his forehead again, as if feeling dizzy:

"I have a Keeper-level relic on me that can deal with it, but it needs preparation time, so I didn't use it just now. You take it and defeat that bone dragon. As a reward, that relic is yours, but you need to swear to the god you believe in to help me deliver a letter to the Nature Church in the Rift."

Xia De thought slightly:

"I am glad you can trust me. That relic is the reward for saving you, and the reward for delivering the letter is that I want to open the letter to check the content."

The professor hesitated slightly:

"Okay."

He opened the big book that looked like it had hundreds of pages and stopped at a position slightly toward the back. The page on the left was written with dense small characters, and the page on the right depicted a white crystal with a giant dragon inside with extremely fine brushstrokes.

He placed his hand above the page on the right, and then grabbed it violently, actually "grabbing" the white crystal out of the paper. At the same time, the small characters on the left page and the drawings on the right page all disappeared. This 11th-ring professor used unknown means to seal the relic in the book:

"This is yours. Keeper-level relic 【Higgs Dragon Head Stone】. It can only be used when slaying a dragon. The opponent must have the 'dragon' attribute, and the volume must be at least ten times that of the user, otherwise the characteristic cannot be triggered. Holding this stone in your hand, keep a stationary state, stare at the target for more than ten seconds, and you can use a dragon breath once..."

He paused:

"Yes, it is just as you think, and the consumption to yourself is extremely low. The breath is only effective against dragons, and only has a frightening effect on non-dragon targets. The negative characteristic is that there is a certain probability that after using the stone, you will irreversibly transform into a crazy dragon-headed person, but this probability is very low. The containment condition is simple, just place it in pure table salt."

The surface of the white crystal in his hand was very rough, and holding it tightly in his palm even caused pain. And if you observe the turbid interior of the crystal carefully, besides the dragon that seemed to be shrunk and sealed into the crystal, you could actually observe a line of small characters. That was not any language Xia De had come into contact with, and it didn't even look like a language used by human civilization:

【If you were a dragon, that would be great.】

"Are you sure that dragon breath used by humans can defeat that bone dragon? Is this just a Keeper-level relic?"

Xia De asked again.

"This relic is specifically designed to restrain dragons, especially impure dragons like hybrid dragons and undead dragons. And, even the lowest-level relic, if you find a suitable application scenario, can defeat the highest-level relic. But I must remind you that the attribute of the dragon breath you spit out is related to your own power. If you are good at power like fire, poison, thunder, etc., your throat may become hoarse after using the relic, and your lungs will also be seriously injured."

This relic is really reasonable.

"It's okay, I have healing-type abilities."

"Now, you can also become a dragon-slaying hero."

The professor joked and opened the book again to look for potions to treat himself. He not only had poison on him, but also other injuries. The battle on the Sicard Mountains was more intense than in the city.

Xia De shook his head:

"What kind of dragon-slaying hero am I? I heard that the balanced Chosen One really slew a pure-blooded dragon."

"I heard that too. But the other party is the protagonist of the era, the destined hero, the person destined to write an epic. How can we compare with her?"

With the dragon head stone in his hand, Xia De left the building and came to the five-way intersection again. Looking up at the sky filled with white fog, he captured the bone dragon wandering in the fog:

"Ten."

That dragon didn't find Xia De for the first time, still circling constantly overhead.

"Nine."

It still didn't find Xia De, and Xia De already felt the stone in his palm heating up, and his lungs felt a bit hot.

"Eight."

That dragon's flying movement became sluggish, and it finally found Xia De after three seconds.

"Seven."

It seemed to be confirming the target, and it also seemed to be accumulating power. The bone dragon didn't pounce down immediately, but let out a roar in the thick fog. Because it was suppressed by the Rift, it sounded unusually muffled. Xia De immediately felt the mental pressure, and primitive panic appeared in his heart. This is the innate ability of dragons, of course, it had no effect on him.

"Six."

That dragon swooped down, and Xia De also felt that his lungs were as painful as if they were on fire.

"Five."

The bone dragon's flying speed was extremely fast, falling like a falling meteorite. If this hit him head-on, even with Xia De's current physical strength, I am afraid he would be shattered so much that even Mia wouldn't recognize him.

"Four."

The dragon was almost in front of his eyes. The wind pressure and mental pollution from the sky made Xia De subconsciously want to dodge. But he suppressed this impulse, and then kissed the moonlight stone ring on his left hand, aiming it upward:

"Confusion!"

"Three."

The clear yellow moonlight sprinkled toward the sky, and the chaotic power affected the bone dragon's judgment as Joey Barton's summon. Its descending speed slowed down significantly, but because the bone dragon's own power was too strong, the power of the spell 【Confusion】 did not make it turn against Xia De.

"Two."

Xia De withdrew his left hand, his eyes fixed on the dragon hovering in mid-air. He felt his chest expanding, and the urge to vomit made his entire upper body extremely uncomfortable. The 【Higgs Dragon Head Stone】 held in his left hand was endowing Xia De with power using whisper elements. This is a very dangerous behavior; if he is not careful, he will fall into madness and let himself truly transform into a dragon.

"One."

The bone dragon swayed its tail in the air, and the scarlet skull eye sockets looked at Xia De below.

And Xia De closed his mouth tightly and took a deep breath. From his eyes, nostrils, ears, and even the gaps in his lips, brilliant silver light shot out uncontrollably:

"Roar!"

The sound appeared first, followed by the shock wave caused by the sound wave sweeping across the entire block. In the mouth Xia De opened toward the sky, a brilliant silver moon beam shot straight into the sky like a light cannon. It hit the bone dragon head-on like a hot knife through butter, making it disappear completely in the light. Subsequently, the dragon roar of the silver moon broke through the white fog in the sky, leaving a huge hole in the thick fog.

The silver light traces in the air did not dissipate for a long time, as if the light had permanently left traces in the air. While the broken bone fragments fell toward the ground without a sound, Xia De bent down and pressed the ground, coughing painfully:

"Cough! Cough, oh, I feel like my entire lungs are going to burn up. Shouldn't the power of moonlight be completely harmless to the human body?"

【You are a human after all, not a dragon.】

"She" chuckled, seemingly very satisfied with this result.

"If this 【Dragon Head Stone】 could be used against any target, this thing would at least have a Sage-level rating."

Taking a water bottle from his pocket and drinking two mouthfuls of water treated by 【Gluttonous Feast】, the cold feeling finally made his lungs feel a bit better.

Turning around and returning to the building, Professor Ogley of Zarathos was still configuring potions to heal himself. The injuries he received were not simple external injuries, so Xia De couldn't give help either.

"You are indeed the God-Caller. Although you are deliberately suppressing your power, that kind of silver moonlight is definitely not wrong."

Seeing Xia De walk back, the professor raised his head and said. Xia De shook his head:

"Give me the letter, I want to go to the Nature Church as soon as possible."

"Your target was that place from the beginning?"

"Just because there is no answer, I can only trust my own guess..."

"This is the letter. I actually suggest that you can cooperate with the church to deal with Joey Barton together. As long as you show sincerity, the church will be very happy to have one more 13th-ring helper."

Xia De shook his head and turned to leave, but hesitated, and asked again:

"Excuse me, do you know where the principal of Saint Byrons, 'Silver Keeper' Professor Andre Pigman, is now?"

Professor Ogley picked up the conical glass bottle and asked softly:

"Then please answer me a question too, God-Caller. This time, will you call upon the gods?"

"I don't have an answer either."

The professor nodded:

"Then I understand. Professor Pigman has not entered the Rift yet; he is in the real Midhillburg."

"The three 13th-ring mages of the church, as well as the 13th-ring of the academy, actually didn't come to the city in the Rift?"

This didn't make sense no matter how he thought about it.

"Once the Trace of the Sacred Tree ritual is successful, as long as the Rift hasn't collapsed at that time, it can at least delay the problem of Midhillburg for three years, so enough high-ring mages are needed at the core position of the ritual on the mountain. Moreover, the seal of the Nature Church is theoretically the most secure seal. The Nature Church has occupied this place for thousands of years and has been operating the Rift since the beginning of this era. Do they really have no extra means at all?"

Saying this, he tilted his head and drank the purple potion in his hand. Judging from his expression, the taste of that thing was very bad. But immediately after, this professor actually frowned tightly and threw the thumb-sized glass bottle into his mouth, chewing it crunchily, his expression incomparably ferocious:

"I added potion catalyst ingredients to the potion bottle I used in wartime, which can make the drunk potion exert its effect better. Oh, this is not glass, it just sounds like glass. I am spitting blood, not scratched by the bottle."

He smiled at Xia De with a mouth full of blood and waved another bottle in his hand at Xia De:

"Want to try it? This is my unique invention. Although not many people are willing to use it, it is absolutely very useful. The academy has accepted my patent application, and it has reached the final approval process. I plan to study a few more flavors..."

Xia De turned and ran, and hoped that this "unique invention" would never be popularized. ===== CHAPTER 761 =====